Wednesday, Nov. 30, 2011

Over the weekend, Mom was sent to the ER for some problems she was having and while they were ruling out one problem they found a new tumor on her right femur bone.  So the doctor wanted her to use a walker until they see her on Dec. 5. 



We got a referral to a durable medical equipment vendor and took Mom in to see what kind of contraption she wanted.  Well they have all kinds of fun gadgets!  Mom tried out several different walkers and then started asking questions about wheel chairs.  We talked with the salesman and decided to check the classified adds for a used walker.  As we are walking to the car, Mom realizes she doesn't have her purse with her.  So I went back inside the store to find it.  I went to where we were looking at walkers and didn't see it.  Went to the wheel chairs and didn't see it.  I them went back to the counter to see if someone turned it in or found it and saw an older woman in a wheel chair in the back corner of the store.  She had Mom's purse on her lap and was digging through it.  I went right up to her and said "That's my mother's purse.  I will take that, thank you!"  I took the purse and looked down and the woman had Mom's meds in her hand!  I said "And those are her meds.  I will take those too!".


Well I went back to the car and gave the purse back to Mom to check it out.  She checked to see that her wallet was there and it was so we left.  Well I didn't realize that she didn't look inside her wallet.  We found out after we left that the woman had stolen all of Mom's cash!  I was so upset!  Oh, and she had stolen Mom's extra keys too.  Don't know what she thought she was going to do with those.

So we went back to the store and the salesman who had helped us earlier, saw the exchange between the woman and myself and remembered her.  He talked to the store manager and they were able to catch her on the surveillance footage for about 7 minutes, which the store manager was happy to turn over to the police.  But, since we don't know who she is or where she lives, nothing will probably happen. 
Just unbelievable!